In modern society, many persons have at least one digital device that includes a media player capable of playing digital audio files. Such digital devices include mobile phones, portable media players, tablet computers, laptop computers, personal computers, network speakers, car entertainment systems, home entertainment systems, etc.
Digital audio files containing speech have been gaining increasing popularity and are available for download or online streaming over the Internet. Such speech-containing audio files include so-called audio books or talking books, which are recordings of a literary text being read out loud, as well as so-called podcasts, which are episodic series of audio recordings.
The digital device normally has a command interface that allows the user of the digital device to control the playback of the audio file, e.g. by actuating dedicated buttons or icons in the command interface. For example, the user may pause and resume the playback of the audio file at will. Many command interfaces also allow the user to move forward or backward through the audio file at a speed faster than its normal playback speed, and to skip forward or backward in the audio file by a given time step, such as 15 seconds.
One problem when playing speech-containing audio files is that the current context may be lost to the listener if the playback is paused for a longer time. Some media players solve this problem by automatically rewinding the playback by a fixed time step, e.g. 15 or 30 seconds, when the user resumes playback of the audio file after a pause.
However, there is a continued need to improve the user's ability to control the playback of speech-containing audio files.